Smile
by Corvus no Genmu
Summary: You are my opposite. Where you create, I destroy. You spread warmth and cheer to all, I spread coldness and despair. You are Spring and Summer incarnate in the beauty of life. I am Fall and Winter embodied in ugliness matching that of death.
1. Smile

**Smile**

By Corvus no Genmu the Prince of Slumberland

Where are you?

Why can I not find you?

I see you on the edge of my time, just past the horizon line.

I feel your painful warmth on my flesh and yet I cannot embrace you but run away for fear of my existance.

Why?

I see your smile as you create that which I must destroy. I see the bareless trees become adorned with leaves in marvelous hues of green.

The same as you.

I see the flowers that adorn your hair spread outwards in waves, making the greens of the watered grasses become a myriad of colors matched only to that of the rainbows that arc above us.

So beautiful.

It's all so beautiful.

You are beautiful.

You're feminity is a perfect balance between childlike innocence and womanly sensuality with the wildness of your hair being tamed by the pearls of your smile. I can barely see you in this distance above you, where the coldness of the stars are my only comfort, and yet I can see such detail with the eyes of the hawks. You are perfect in every way imaginable. You bring life to the lifeless, allow the colors of the rainbows to touch the earth, and spread forth the joy that comes from the sun and the sapphire skies.

You are perfection.

You are Spring.

You are Life

And yet…

You are my opposite.

Where you create, I destroy.

Where you gather colors of every sort, I collect hues of white and gray.

Where you can feel and experience life, I see and experience death.

You spread warmth and cheer to all, I spread coldness and despair.

You are Spring and Summer incarnate in the beauty of life.

I am Fall and Winter embodied in ugliness matching that of death.

My flesh is pale, barely different from the snow-cloak that adorns me. My hair, short and hard as ice is matched with eyes of blue. My hands can only destroy with claws sharper than a predator's own and whatever I embrace withers away into nothing before the coldness of ice enwraps them. I have never smiled as you have, not even a simple one, and only frown to match the void winds that howl eternal around me.

I am Winter.

I am Death.

Whenever I race towards you, your marvelous greens begin to change into the reds and yellows that are the calling card heralding my time on earth. You begin to tire both from the exhaustion of your own works and the spreading cold of my presence. I race towards you, faster and faster, hoping to catch you in my arms, to let your eyes fall upon me and give me some semblance of peace but you are gone.

Asleep.

WHY!

Why can I not at least meet you eye-to-eye? Are we so different, so incompatible that we cannot be allowed a breath's time together if only so you could judge me? Must I forever exist not knowing your own feelings to me and what I have done and will continue to do to your precious greens and rainbows? Must I always be forced to acknowledge the simple fact that you know nothing of me while I know everything there is about you?

The winds howl around me, kicking up the snowflakes that are my own tears.

Your precious elk, your friend and your helper knows of me. He knows of my hideousness and has long since chosen to hide me from you and can only stand the sight of me for so long. He too has left me to my lonliness. Moons and suns come and go and I refuse to move back to the stars. The sun is warming the earth and burning across my skin.

I am through with this game.

I will see you eye-to-eye.

Even if I must die to do so.

The elk brushes past me, casting me a confused but sympathetic eye. He knows not why I have not feld to the upper skies, but he is aware of the price I might pay for this solace. He's gone and I can feel the warmth increasing, stars above this warmth is brutal upon me.

My hairs is slack and moist, the occasional strand falling away into whisps of water and steam. My claws, once sharp and pointed as icicles are dull and round, falling away into the puddle forming beneath me. It's taking all my power to keep my snow-cloak from melting away and even then it looks more and more like the slush that's rapidly disappearing around me.

Please.

Please hurry.

Laughter. I hear your laughter. Birdsongs, flowerblooms, evergreens, and everything in between. I can feel it surrounding me and, for a moment, I lose myself to it. It's as beautiful as I thought it would be. The elk rushes past me, running to match the flightspeed of your plant-cloak. He circles around me but I pay him no mind, my eyes are focused only upon your warmth, your eyes.

They're as beautiful as the stars.

You hover before me, looking at me with a puzzled air. You do not speak in words but your eyes tell me everything just as my own do.

_Who are you?_

**I am Winter.**

_Winter… Is it you who casts forth the snow and ice, and sends the greens and rainbows away into oblivion?_

**Yes…**

_Why?_

**I wanted it… the greens and rainbows… I wanted the warmth and the sun… I wanted it all… but where I go… there is only white and grays… coldness and a darkened sky… Where you have life and freedom… I have death and imprisonment…**

_… Why are you here?_

**To tell you… I'm sorry… and to say…**

I cannot finish, I'm slipping away into the puddle, my body in such great pains that I cannot even feel anymore. I'm melting faster now, my hair gone and my arms nothing more than useless stumps. I'm merely water now, there's no coldness within me anymore. Perhaps there never was really. Perhaps it was my own selfishness that kept me from her. My selfishness to have what she had and my desire to remain alive even if it meant being away from her.

I'm slipping…

I have no time for words or anything else save for one final look into her eyes. Into those starry orbs I convey everything that I've ever felt towards her. Everything. She reaches towards me, her hands passing through my shoulders and exiting out from them, wet from the waters of my body. She doesn't understand what's happening. She has seen death and has experienced it herself but she cannot comprehend why I have done this. Dying just for the sake of meeting her.

My body is fading away into mist, but I've got enough strength to say it.

"I love you."

Her eyes are wet and I want to tell her not to cry, to not waste her tears upon something as ugly as I but I haven't the strength anymore. I can only fade away further.

"I love you." She speaks for the first time. It's a lie, I know it is. How could something so beautiful as Life love something as ugly as Death? She wants me to escape back to the stars, back to their cold embrace. To live…

But I won't…

Because even if it's a lie…

I can still die…

With a smile…

…


	2. Author's Tale

While I'm surprised by the amount of reviews this story has gained in its first day of creation, I am not so surprised by the lack of knowledge as to which Disney film this story connects to. The movie itself is seven years old, at the time of this writing, and even then isn't really noted as a Disney Classic like Peter Pan or Sleeping Beauty. However, due to rule of not making a chapter devoted to author's note without compensation, I am slightly forced to write this note in a more… novelistic fashion. The next several paragraphs go into detail as to who the two lovers are and what they are but if you're more eager to find which film inspired this tale of love and heartbreak, please do not hesitate to skip to the end.

She is Spring and He is Winter but more than that, they are something as grand and eternal as the Never-Fairies of Neverland and the Fairies of the human realm both big and small.

They are sprites.

Creatures everlasting whose powers are more connected to nature and the elements than any other creature save for elementals and even creatures such as they are still permitted death. Sprites are not capable of death, their powers being so connected to nature that, like nature, they cannot last forever nor can they die. Some, like the Spring, must go into a state of hibernation, sleeping away during the times where their power is at its weakest. Others, like Winter, must flee to realms as close to their elements as possible lest they experience something far worse than death. Reincarnation, for any sprite, is a simple manner of dying and being reborn with their powers and memories still intact. This method is quite common should a sprite die during the time of their powers, but if one should die when their power is at their weakest…

They are either reborn far weaker than before…

Or, like Winter, remember nothing of their past.

As to Spring and Winter themselves, these two sprites are amongst the most powerful of their race though they reside in a single location in the forests of North America, where such destruction brought forth by man is nonexistent for man does not exist in this age of life and death. Though they are powerful, neither sprite has ever been compelled to do evil with their gifts like the sprite of fire and unnecessary death, the Firebird. Even Winter does what he knows must be done for life cannot continue without at least some death along the way.

As said by a wise king, "We are all a part of the circle of life."

If anyone wishes for me to conclude this story on a happier note, you have but to gather enough of those who also wish for such a thing and respond in either review or private-message. However, I will not accept responses that run along the lines of stating that this story is disconnected from Disney because of its angst-ending. I recommend that one watches the story of Disney's "The Little Match Girl" if one does indeed feel that way.

As to what Disney film this tale is based upon…

Why…

It's Fantasia 2000.

The Firebird Suite to be exact.

This is Corvus no Genmu signing off with a few wise words courtesy of my wife.

"Dance as though no one can see you. Sing as though no one can hear you. Love as though you've never been hurt before. Live as though heaven is on Earth."

And, for variety's sake, one of my own,

"Yesterday is history, Tomorrow is a mystery, Today is a gift; that is why we call it the Present."


	3. To Smile Again

**To Smile Again...**

By Corvus no Genmu the Prince of Slumberland

I haven't smiled since then, the day he came and went from my life.

Where are you?

Why would I really?

I am… broken…

Because of him though he did not mean for such a thing.

How could he?

He didn't understand the full truth of what he had done. As sprites we can die but as sprites of nature we are also reborn. I too have died but never as he had, outside my time awake in the forests, coloring the ground emerald and covering it with rainbows. To die beyond my time… I know not how I know of it, but to die outside time is very… bad.

He is an example of how bad it is.

For the many suns and moons that I reigned in my… our… forest, I have tried to find him, to speak with him again but I couldn't. I felt the coldness spreading and my eyes were drooping more and more each day; I was getting tired and still I could not find you.

Were you dead?

I fell to slumber and did not awaken until my friend the elk awoke me. He lead me outside my cave and I saw the whites and the grays, the absence of color and warmth. It was your work, I knew it then as I know it now but how? How could you be back and not seek me as you did before?

I searched for you everywhere once again.

And still I could not find you.

Where are you?

After the last of the grays and whites were gone, replaced by greens and brightness of warmth, I went to the elk. He was wise and knew of our kind for he, like others around the forest, are like us both immortal and mortal at once. The live longer than most of their kind but are still able to succumb to death. Perhaps during my sleep he found you in the coldness of death.

He did.

And it broke me further.

He found you with your own guide, a wolf, going about the forest as I do in the negative, bringing cold instead of warmth, dark skies instead of a glistening sun. He spoke not to you for you could not understand him like I do. Instead, he spoke to your guide, the timber-wolf whose fur was as ashen as your flesh, he spoke to him and asked of him to tell what he knew of you and why it was you have not seeked me out.

The wolf spoke harshly.

Truthfully.

But harshfully.

He said it was better that you didn't try to find me again, to die and be reborn with a price.

To be reborn without memory.

You remember who and what you are, what you must do to strive, and where to go to sleep…

But you don't remember what it was you died for all those moons ago…

You don't remember me…

I wept for some time after hearing that…

I wept for the love that I had gained and lost… and I wept for you…

My Winter…

Why did it have to be this way? I knew how you felt towards me, the feelings and images you gave to me our last meeting were more than enough to solidify my own…

So why…?

Why can I not find you…?

Why can we not be together one last time…?

I've realized that we can't be together once more, not like the last time. Because last time… it required something that you were completely willing to do. You sacrificed yourself to meet me, to ask for forgiveness, to love me in one beautiful moment, and you paid the price by losing that which brought a twitch to your lips. That which allowed you to smile even if it was on the inside.

So we couldn't be together…

Without another sacrifice.

The elk told me to not be foolish, that there was little chance of you regaining that which you lost and my paying a similar if not deadlier price.

I don't care.

I'm waiting for you, on the edge of my time.

Just beyond the horizon line.

Will you come?

Will I find you?

The coldness is spreading and my cloak does not protect me from it. A steamy breath escapes me, is this your doing? Is this what you bring upon your awakening? This exhilarating coldness? The rainbows are fading away into crimson waves as greens fade away into browns. Sparkles fall around me and I cannot help but stare in wonder. Is this snow? I touch a delicate flake and see its intricate designs. I have never seen how snow comes, merely where it rests and I see now the truth of snow.

It's beautiful.

Are you coming?

Wait, I hear you, the howls that surround you and the coldness spreads further. Whistling winds, the settling snow, the spread of ice, and everything in between. I can feel it surrounding me and, for a moment, I lose myself to it. It's more beautiful than I thought it would be. Is this what you felt to my creations? The wolf rushes past me, running to match the flightspeed of your snow-cloak. He circles around me before moving to stand beyond this snow-covered field, to stand beside the elk. I pay him no mind, my eyes are focused only upon you and your eyes.

They're as beautiful as the falling snow.

You are as I remember you to be with the same hardness as before, your eyes being the only thing about you outside of your cloak that can be called such. You tilt your head to the left in curiousity in the same manner as I. Is this a sign? The sound of snow-fall is all that surrounds us in this land of rapidly spreading grays and whites. My cloak is a dirty brown now and my hair feels dry and cracked.

I'm dying.

And you don't know why.

**Why are you here?**

_To see you, if only once._

**Why?**

_Because you told me something once, shared with me something as precious as golden sun and rainbow skies._

**Why then, do I have no memory of ever meeting another sprite? Even one such as you I could recall. **

_Because, you died outside your time much as I too am dying. You sacrificed your memory of me to tell me your truth. _

You shiver and float towards me to stand before me.

**Who are you? **

_I am Spring._

**And… what was truth did I speak to you?** I try to smile but I have not the strength to make such a fake. I haven't the will to lie to myself anymore.

_Your love._ My hair is falling away into the winds alongside my cloak, I haven't much time. _And here… is my truth._ I cup my withered hands to your face and touch my lips upon your own.

"I love you."

And I start to slip away but your hands hold me tight.

"I love you too." Your blue eyes are wet with tears that fall away into the brilliance of falling-snow. Your eyes reflect that which you showed to me once before and I know… I know a new truth.

You remember me.

**Don't die…** You hug me to your chest, warming me though you think it impossible. **Life doesn't die for Death.**

It's alright… I want to say to you, to reassure you… That even if I lose memory of you… I'll always remember… this moment… Because… I can smile… because of this moment…

…

* * *

_I awaken to find startling blue eyes staring upon me, eyes that I recognize. I gasp and rise up to see you, whole and complete yet surrounded by fields of green and rainbows. How can this be?_

**You are surprised to see me just as I am surprised to be seeing you still, with fields of white and grays encompassing you. I know not how it happened, was it your Life that brought you back before you could succumb to my Death? No… even your power is not that great. So why?**

Neither of them know how it is they can stand beside the other, with fields of greens and whites, rainbows and grays. All they know is that something grander than either of them speaks a simple yet powerful truth.

One moon of every six I give to you, my Spring and Winter. Use this time as you will and remember that which you have gained, that which cannot be compared to anything of mine.

The two cannot understand the reason, nor the why, of how this has come to be, but, in the end, they do not care to question, to ponder away what precious time they may have together. Instead, they begin to fly to wherever the winds can take them, to forests of colorful Spring to the starry skies of cold Winter. The two do whatever they can together for they both have found something that beings such as they rarely find in such wonderful brilliance.

A reason to smile.

* * *


End file.
